Woolies uses web to educate consumers

Woolworths Financial Services has recently started using internet broadcasting, or podcasting, as a way to help customers make their money stretch in the environment of rising prices and interest rates.

It is one of the first local retailers to use internet broadcasting in this way. “This is only the beginning of a revolution in how corporates provide quality content that, at the same time, enhances their brand,” said behavioural change expert Dr Harry Dugmore this week. Dugmore wrote and produced the podcast.

Making Friends With Money is a free online series on the www.woolworths.co.za website which consists of eight, 10-minute episodes dealing with conquering the fear of money, ways to save, avoiding debt and effective ways of getting out of it.

Dugmore has written other financial education series, but this was the first time he had used this medium. “This has been a very interesting project. My motivation is to get the message out there that financial health is possible whatever your salary. Podcasting has given me a new way of doing that.”

Woolworths Financial Services head Sam Ngumeni said: “We know our customers are struggling to make ends meet. The Woolworths brand is about making the difference and the new media space seemed a way of doing that.”

Podcasting is a way of broadcasting audio material without the need for any kind of transmitter other than the internet.

Source: Business Day

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